Congressman Allen West's Counterattack

Congressman Allen West launched his counterattack to Patrick Murphy's scurrilous ad.

Congressman Allen West (R. Fla.) is high on the Democratic hit list this November, right up with Congresswoman Michele Bachman. The retired Army Lt. Colonel is a straight shooter. He calls them as he sees them. In short, he lacks the diplomatic skills to work his way up to Chief of Staff. His statements can be over the top, but that’s hardly a disqualification for Congress.

The first term Congressman is one of two African Americans elected as Republicans to Congress in the 2010 Republican landslide. His current district represents Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach. As a result of reapportionment he is campaigning for reelection from the adjoining district, the competitive 18^th.

His Democratic opponent is Patrick Murphy, a spoiled rich kid from Miami. Daddy is the co-founder of a large construction company. He gave Junior a vice-presidency in the family business.

The 30 year old, former Republican, seeks a new calling in life, one which requires no education, training, experience, knowledge, or ability – a seat in Congress. He carpetbagged from Miami to the new district.

Daddy financed a despicable ad last month (see August 11, 2012 blog). The animation video portrays Congressman West as a pugilist. The African American is first shown slugging an elderly white woman with the caption he “socked it to seniors.”

He then slugs a young woman, who looks surprisingly like Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, with the heading he supports cuts to women health.

These scenes are very graphic and racist.

The Congressman then proceeds to steal money from a poor African American family.

The Congressman ran his counter ad a few days ago. The best defense is a good offense. The ad is a compare and contrast between the two in February 2003.

Colonel West is shown marshaling his soldiers in Texas as they prepare to ship out to Iraq.

By way of contrast, a mug shot of the 21 year old neer do well Patrick Murphy appears as he is arrested outside a nightclub for a drunken bar fight within the club, Patrick “was covered in alcohol and unable to stand.”

The question we are asked is:

              TWO MEN, A COUNTRY IN CRISIS, YOU DECIDE

The beauty of the ad is that it is absolutely true.

Some commentators have already called it the most effective political ad this year.

We will know on election night.

Vote for Obama; Get Your Free Obama Cell Phone

Have you seen the video of the African American woman in Cleveland with her free Obama phone?

Vote for Obama. Get your free Obama phone.

Wait, that’s the reverse. That would be illegal vote buying, except in Philadelphia where it’s called “Walking around money.”

It’s “Keep Obama as President. He gave us a phone”

When asked about Governor Romney, she responded: “Romney, he sucks.”

There’s the election.

That is the issue in this election, the real issue.

Freedom versus Free!

The economy is critical; the fate of Israel may be on the line: foreign policy and national security are entering the danger zone.

The character of America is at stake. Will President Obama complete his goal of transforming America? Will America become a culture of dependency on the government or continue as a culture that relies on personal liberty and independence?

Transformation was more important to President Obama than economic rejuvenation, which is why he devoted his second year to pushing through ObamaCare.

Dependency or independence? That is the question facing America.

Have Americans become so dependent on the government that they will now routinely vote for the political party that promises them a free cell phone, the Democratic Party, the party of government?

She represents the 49% of American households in which at least one member receives government benefits.

The Obama Campaign does not want to face that issue, for their campaign will then fail. Americans believe in personal freedom.

Thus, the Obama Campaign quickly threw her under the bus, emphasizing that the cell phone program preceded the Obama Administration. The origins of the program go back to 1985.Congress extended the program to cell phones in 2008.

It's not an Obama program, but that Americans reasonably believe comes from Obama is revealing.

The cell phone “Lifeline” program is offered by the carriers with the federal government covering the costs. The government pays the carriers up to $10/phone per month.  The beneficiaries get a free phone and up to 250 minutes of time per month.

Eligible persons are those who fall into one of the following programs: an income of less than 135% of the federal poverty guidelines, receive Supplemental Security Income, Health benefit coverage under the Child Health Insurance Program, the Free School Lunch Program, Low Income Energy Assistance Program, Section 8 Public Housing, low income resident of tribal lands, or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.

One of the persons who received an unsolicited request to sign up for the program is Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri.

Is it no wonder that in less than a decade the cost of the program has grown to $2.4 billion covering 12.5 million people?

Independence or dependency?

However, American may have already crossed the threshold into dependency.

Here are the existing government programs distributing billions of dollars to millions of Americans:

          Social Security

          Social Security Disability

          Medicare

          Medicaid

          Unemployment

          Extended Unemployment

          Public housing

          School Lunches

          Food Stamps

          Farm Prices

          Children health Insurance

          Student Loans

          Subsidized water

          Subsidized Electricity

          Subsidized Mass Transit

         Subsidized rents

All of which adds up to a budget deficit of $1.5 trillion!

These programs are unsustainable, as with Greece, Spain, and Portugal

If America has not quite crossed the threshold into dependency, then it will when ObamaCare kicks in, transferring 16% of the economy to the government.

The American history with such programs is not one of success, starting with the current travails of the Post Office, the enormous deficits of mass transit, the metamorphosis of public housing into tenements, the public schools in large municipalities, and the failures of Fannie May and Freddy Mac.

The video is troublesome in another respect. The Cleveland woman is apparently one of scores hired by the SEIU at $11/hour to protest at Romney rallies. SEIU is the union that represents public and private service employees. The members often show up at Obama rallies in purple shirts.

America was built on personal liberty.

Will President Obama transform it into long term poverty?

Ignore the Current Polls

Why the Current Polls Are Worthless!

The current polls have President Obama leading Governor Romney nationally by 5-6%. They also have the President winning all nine battleground states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

With 40 days and three debates before the election, the media and polls have all but declared the election over - a landslide election awaits President Obama. They are also willing to proclaim that the Democrats will retain the Senate and have a chance of regaining control of the House, even though they utterly failed to predict the 2010 Republican midterm landslide.

Ignore the polls; they’re meaningless right now. Don’t delve into the internals about whether or nor they over poll Democrats, ignore recent voting patterns, or voting registration patterns.

If you wish to look closer at the polls, then the Wall Street Journal shows some of the confusion. A recent poll shows the President up by 6% among registered voters and 5% by those likely to vote. However, it shows the Governor winning by 3% among those highly interested in the election – a measure of the intensity factor.

The Governor is coming off a bad week, haunted by the 47% remark. He will bounce back, just as President Obama has seemingly recovered from the “You didn’t make it” assertion.

The polls are worthless unless you assume that President Obama will match or outperform his 2008 election results; in other words that Governor Romney will do worse than Senator McCain, who lost by 10 million votes.

President Carter still had a large read over Governor Reagan at this point in 1980. We know who won by a landslide.

Senator Obama was an unknown, telegenic charismatic candidate who offered “Hope and Change.” The country had just suffered an economic collapse. The Republican President, George W. Bush, was very unpopular. President Obama outspent Senator John McCain 9:1. Senator McCain ran an otherwise insipid campaign except for the selection of Governor Palin as his VP running mate. Senator Obama, as a former community organizer, established an outstanding ground game.

President Obama is a known quantity today. His economic performance has been abysmal. He is running away from the economy. His eloquence bounces off most listeners. His campaign rallies are often under attended.

The conservatives and Republicans who voted to elect conservatives in 2010 will turn out equally strong this year. They will vote even if a blizzard hits on election day.

The question is if President Obama can achieve his same turnout this year aside from the African Americans who will turn out in overwhelming numbers.

Let’s look at some specifics. The NBC/Marist/Wall Street Journal poll shows the President up by 2%, 48-46% in North Carolina. The President carried North Carolina by only 14,000 votes four years ago.

The Quinnipiac/New York Times/CBS poll shows the President ahead by 10% in Ohio, a state he won 51.5% to 46.9%.

Four polls show the President ahead by an average 5%, 49-44% in Virginia. His margin in Virginia was slightly higher at 6.3%.

Senator Obama won 52.9% of the vote in 2008. He hardly ever approaches 50% in any poll. That’s a warning sign because undecided voters usually go to the opponent against an incumbent.

The only polls that count are the ones at the polling booth on election day.

We will see if “It’s still the economy, stupid.”

Yes, Elizabeth Warren, A Corporation is a Person

We left Massachusetts in 1996, but seem to be on a mailing list.

I received a fundraising letter from Elizabeth Warren yesterday.

The front of the envelope has a big picture of her and this quote “No, Mitt, corporations are not people.”

The back of the envelope says “People have hearts. They have kids, they get jobs, they get sick, they love and they cry. They live and they die. Mitt and the Republican Party should learn the difference. We don’t run this country for corporations, we run it for the people.”

Yes, Elizabeth Warren is running for the people and the middle class – not corporations.

Yet, it was Travelers Insurance Company she represented for $212,000 before the Supreme Court in the insurance company’s case against asbestos victims.

Remember, she’s for the people eventhough she represented an insurance company against real people.

It’s not Mitt Romney who says corporations are people. Nor is it the Republican Party. As Professor Warren well knows, it’s the Supreme Court and Congress.

The basic principal was set forth in the famous 1819 Dartmouth College case. Dartmouth received a charter from King George III in 1769. The state of New Hampshire attempted to change the college's charter in 1816.

Dartmouth retained its famous alumnus, Daniel Webster, to represent it. Daniel Webster gave one of his great presentations: “It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet, there are those who love it.”

Chief Justice Marshall delivered the decision in1819, which held private corporations have the same right to contract and to enforce contracts as natural persons.

The Supreme Court held in the 1888 Pembina Consolidated Silver Mining Co. case that a private corporation is included in the 14 Amendment definition of “person.” The Court has followed this holding several times.

Corporations are thereby protected by the Constitution with such rights as the First Amendment Freedom of Speech and the 5^th Amendment Due Process protections.

In addition Title I, Section I of the United States Code expressly defines “person” to include corporations, unless the context indicates otherwise.

The Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, the bankruptcy expert, must be aware of the rule of law that a corporation is a person in the eyes of the law.

She claims to be 1/32 Cherokee, or is it Delaware, or both? She’s not sure. She listed herself as Native American, but claims not to have taken advantage of affirmative action to get a job.  She did not object when Harvard listed as Native American.

Let’s add it all up.

Professor Elizabeth Warren is just another political wannabe who will say anything to get elected.

What is Touchdown Jesus Thinking?

Notre Dame is off to its best start in 4 decades, having defeated Navy, Purdue, Michigan State and Michigan, proving itself the best team in the weakened Big Ten this year.

The Fighting Irish celebrated Saturday’s victory over Michigan by dropping the Wolverines from its schedule. Notre Dame is dropping Michigan, just like it dropped kicked Miami, Pittsburgh, Ty Willingham, and the Big East in the past, unceremoniously.

The fabled Michigan-Notre Dame football rivalry is coming to an end. The two heavyweights of the Midwest, the two college teams with the winningest record, the first and third winningest programs are calling it quits. Each claims 11 national titles. Notre Dame has 7 Heisman winners and Michigan three. Notre Dame’s legendary coaches include Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, and Lou Holtz. Michigan claims Fielding Yost, Frtiz Crisler, and Bo Schembecher.

Notre Dame claims Rudy (a securities fraud violator), “Win one for the Gipper,” and a TV network.

Michigan has over 500,000 living, loyal alumni around the world with an alumni club flag on the moon.

Texas, Alabama, Nebraska, Penn State, Oklahoma, USC and Ohio State are but pretenders to the throne.

The two universities with great academics, athletics, tradition, and two of the three greatest college fight songs have irreconcilable differences. Notre Dame wants more money and a chance for success in the post-BCS era, whatever that might bring.

In the limited joining the ACC, and dropping Michigan, Notre Dame said it wanted to retain the rivalries with USC and Stanford on the West Coast, and Navy on the east. Notre Dame has retained to date its future matches with Michigan State and Purdue. The Irish have dominated Purdue, which has defeated Notre Dame only 10 times. Michigan State has been more troublesome, but Notre Dame has had more success against Michigan State than Michigan.

Notre Dame needs the coastal games to recruit nationally. Its brand name, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, has lost luster with the fabled Subway Alumni. It has suffered through more bad seasons and coaches in the past two decades than Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Texas combined.

Michigan and Notre Dame 120 miles apart have not been faithful rivals over the years. Indeed, their relationship is one of the Bickersons. They’re more apart than together, with blame on both sides. They have only played each other 40 times in 12 decades.

Both teams would have been even better had they played each other annually since 1887. Neither though would have won as many games as they have. They both achieved football success on parellel tracks while keeping their distance.

Michigan taught Notre Dame how to play football in 1887 and routinely beat Notre Dame until 1909. The immediate result of Notre Dame’s 1909 upset victory was that Michigan’s great coach Fielding Yost dropped Notre Dame from its schedule. He may or may not have had a running feud with Notre Dame’s Knute Rockne, but he formed the predecessor of the Big Ten to exclude Notre Dame.

Notre Dame turned to the coasts, starting its great rivalry with USC, contributing to the success of both schools.

Michigan and Notre Dame played twice in World War II, and then resumed the series in 1978 on an fairly regular basis. Michigan leads the series 23-16-1, but the games since 1992 have witnessed a 14-14-1 record. Michigan has won games it should have lost, as has Notre Dame. Both have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

They play football.

The two teams epitomize Midwest, blue collar, smash mouth football.

That Notre Dame is calling it quits is not a major surprise. What is shocking is how Notre Dame did it. The understanding between the schools was that three years notice had to be given to cancel future games. A two year break was scheduled for 2018-19.

Notre Dame read the fine print. One hour before Saturday’s kickoff, Notre Dame’s Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick hand delivered a letter to Michigan’s AD David Brandon cancelling the games from 2015-2017. The notice requirement was three games – not three years.

Notre Dame has already made one Faustian Bargain. Are they doing it again?

What would Fr. Hesburgh have done? Is Touchdown Jesus is smiling again?

Who is General Martin Dempsey?

General Dempsey, a much decorated West Point and Duke grad, has served for the past year as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military advisor to the President.

He understands the role of the military in our democracy is to stay out of politics.

He speaks for the military. He is the symbol of the Pentagon.

And that is where the problem lies. He has made several statements recently that cast doubt on his perspicuity. He seems to be carrying water for the President, who appointed him, rather than speaking as the independent voice of the military.

He said in a CNN interview on Sunday, February 19 “And we are of the opinion that the Iranian regime is a rational actor,” and we should continue with the sanctions which are working, echoing his February testimony before Congress. That is clearly the position of President Obama, but it defies common sense.

He cautioned against an Israeli attack against Iran in an interview with reporters in London. He remarked that Israel would “clearly delay but probably not destroy Iran’s nuclear program,” adding “I don’t want to be complicit if they choose to do it.”

It’s not his decision to make; that belongs to the President or Israel. His statement though sends a message to the “rational” Iranians that a major schism exists between the Americans and Israelis.

The Obama Administration, perhaps through National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, has leaked a wide variety of sensitive national security information in the aftermath of the Bin Laden Raid and sabotage of the Iranian nuclear activities.

Former CIA and military special forces are outraged by the harm to national security. They formed a Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund, which has run ads against the President’s reelection.

General Dempsey spoke out against them, stating their activities were “not useful.” He said “If someone uses the uniform, whatever uniform, for partisan politics, I am disappointed because I think it does erode that bond of trust we have with the American people.”

The rule is well understood. Active duty military are to remain publicly neutral. Ex-military, such as this new PAC, have every right to exercise their First Amendment Freedom of Speech.

General Dempsey spoke out against the rights of ex-military. That is, at best, ill-advised, but gives the impression that once again the General is speaking on behalf of the President. He has crossed the political line.

More recently, he followed the Obama Administration’s party line on the Muslim attacks against American embassies. Even after it became clear that the attacks were preplanned and orchestrated, the Administration stuck to the claim that they were spontaneous as a result of the anti-Islamic, anti-Prophet video.

The Reverend Terry Jones is the Florida minister who proposed to burn a stack of Qurans last year, causing great outrage in the Islamic world, and earning the Reverend his fifteen minutes of fame. Reverend Jones supports the video.

General Dempsey phoned Reverend Jones last week, asking him to withdraw his support of the video. Once again, we have an act that is inappropriate for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is interfering with the freedom of speech possessed by civilians.

General Dempsey has crossed the line; he has become an active spokesman for the President while wearing his generals’ stars.